Longest speech to fine print: Here're India-specific snippets on Budget

Words worth

Pranab Mukherjee, as finance minister, delivered a 95-minute-long speech while presenting Budget 1982, prompting Indira Gandhi, then prime minister, to say: “The shortest finance minister has delivered the longest Budget speech.” Today, the record for the longest Budget speech — 160 minutes —is held by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The speech, which she delivered in 2020, was, however, cut short towards the end as she felt unwell. Her first Budget speech, in July 2019, had gone on for 137 minutes, breaking the record of Jaswant Singh (133 minutes, in 2003).

Fine print

Until 1950, the Union Budget was